Facing up to Taliban threats

The religions of the world should stand together and resist terrorism and barbarity.

Islam stands for peace and social stability, but the Taliban are clearly anti-Islam. They breed terrorism, are anti-humanist and have an acutely contrarian stance when it comes to the ideal of world brotherhood. Where Hinduism sees divinity in every man, true Islam in its essence is essentially based on the philosophical principles of Advaita. Fanaticism-incited religion forgets the Prophet, who was all for humanism, order, and faith in the divinity of every religion. The Taliban want explosive killing even for fellow-Muslims, through treacherous means of barbarity.

It is a pity that they should seek to use “godism” to wipe out those belonging to other faiths. This is nothing but denial of the freedom of faith. Does God have to be liberated from rival gods through carnage? “Godism” is in every religion. The Kingdom of God is within you, said Jesus. Religion is the manifestation of the divinity in everyone, said Vivekananda. So all of humankind is one indeed.

Let us promote global fraternity. The faith of the nation is set in Gandhiji's creed of non-violence. He died, shot by Nathuram Godse, who was not a Muslim.

I have prayed in both mosques and temples from the depths of my being. Mecca and Ajmer, Varanasi and Rameswaram, are holy and hallowed. Jesus was not judged by a Christian judge but by the Jewish Pilate. Everyone is a brother's keeper: this supreme unity is the conscience of every true religion.

The Taliban are anti-Islam as someone like me is Islamic by conviction. Near Tipu Sultan's fortress in Seringapatam there is a fine temple as well as a good mosque. Close to Varanasi there is a mosque. The bright, divine, black stone in Mecca is hallowed. So is Sree Narayana Guru, the spiritual revolutionary of Kerala who treated Muslims as his disciples. God is universal. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the great guru of Vivekananda, was said to have become a Muslim for a few days since for him god was present in every true religion.

Let the world's Muslims, Christians, Hindus and others stand together in a spirit of fraternity and fellowship and resist terrorism and Talibanist barbarity. That will be the finest hour of universal, merciful Allah.

Is God a terrorist? No, he is merciful. So are Rama, Krishna, the Buddha and Jesus. This is secularism — to see the divinity and perfection in every human being. To worship this profound truth in every being is the glory of terrestrial majesty. There is no materialism since all creation is by God. God sleeps in the mineral, wakes in the vegetables, flies in the birds and thinks in man. Let man think in all sincerity of his true being. Who am I?

Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote: “He prayeth well, who loveth well/ Both man and bird and beast/He prayeth best, who loveth best/All things both great and small;/For the dear God who loveth us,/He made and loveth all.”

Islam is derived from the Arabic root salema: peace, purity, submission and obedience. In the religious sense, Islam means submission to the will of God and obedience to his law. Everything, every phenomenon in the world other than man, is administered totally by laws made by God. That is, they are obedient to God and submissive to his laws, they are in the state of Islam. Man possesses the qualities of intelligence and choice, thus he is invited to submit to the goodwill of God and obey his law, that is, become a Muslim. Submission to the good will of God, together with obedience to his beneficial law, that is, becoming a Muslim, is the best means to man's peace and harmony.

Islam goes right back to the age of Adam and its message has been conveyed to man by God's prophets and messengers, including Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. Islam's message has been restored and enforced in the last stage of religious evolution by the last Prophet and messenger, Muhammad. The word Allah in Arabic means God, or more accurately, the One and Only Eternal God, Creator of the Universe, Lord of all Lords, King of all Kings, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful. The word is also used by Arabic-speaking Jews and Christians to mean God.

The gory Gods at war divide the world into Islamic wealth and non-Islamic “illth.” At the bottom of it all God is absolute, infinite and supremely single. The iron curtain that now divides humanity is only a manifestation of the ancient rivalry between the Arab and Aryan languages, cultures and divinities. Beneath both is the same Brahman. This man is without passion and hunger for power. You will then see this light, this truth. The Taliban with its violent cult has early mortality given the Aryan unanimity of humanity.

Can a mother teach her children about indulging in terror? No. A mother for that matter would like her child to live in peace. So do the religions of the world advocate. No religion of the world to-day do advocate terrorism. It is the mind set of the fundamentalists and their ego over religions turn them as terrorists. Taliban is the creation of the US so too the jihadis. Religion is used as a proxy to claim superiority of one over the other. The US wants to establish its supremacy wants to have control Afghan and created Talibans. Now it is funding Pakistan to wage a war on terror.